(2) After a year of this, the wife has a baby and works just 20 hrs a week, still at $15/hr. The husband has been promoted to store manager or higher (convenience and fast-food store chains are desperate for workers they can promote) and makes $25/hr.
(3) Their new combined income is $67,600--less than before, but still enough for a good life except in a few megalopolises. This is a completely realistic scenario, and not even demanding (the husband could easily continue to work 48 hrs a week). And it's been done with jobs at convenience stores.
(4) If you come up with places where the starting wages are lower, they're highly likely to be in poor states where the cost of living is lower. It's still a realistic scenario. Making enough money to support a family is easy in the United State if you're willing to work. Easier than it was in the fabled 1950s.
I make pretty much the hypothetical couples combined income, live in a low cost of living rural area, and its extremely tight to support a wife and kid on that.
Theres a lot of small stuff that help make it work, like my wife doesn't have to work which avoids daycare costs or just the logistics of both parents having to go to work. We have a mortgage rather than rent which makes the cost of housing a bit lower.
All of that is just to say, even if we ignore the unicorn convenience store jobs, it still doesn't really work out unless you have like 3 or 4 other life circumstances that also work in your favor. I'm struggling with this and im in a specialized job that requires experience and knowledge (and even then I'm payed above average for my area). It's wild how out of touch some of these ghouls are.
only reason my partner and i are surviving (also no kids to support, just pets) we know we are on borrowed time, since health shit is coming in another 5 to 10 years and the only solution to that might be "accidents' that ensure insurance payouts